After splitting this past weekend’s games, the women’s soccer team will take on another pair of opponents this weekend as it travels to High Point for the HPU Invitational.
The Wolfpack will first face Campbell today before resuming play Saturday against High Point.
While the team is 17-0-1 all-time against these schools, junior Lindsay Vera said there have been some close calls in the past against them.
“They’re beatable teams — we can beat them — but sometimes we let our guard down, and we play to their level,” Vera said. “We’ve tied Campbell before. We were up 3-0, and they tied it 3-3 at the end. At High Point last year, we scored a ridiculous goal and won 1-0, but it should have been 5-0.”
In its last timeout, the Pack struggled to put away scoring chances on offense and struggled defensively as well. According to coach Laura Kerrigan, there will be some personnel changes in the lineup going into the tournament.
“As with any position out there, every day we’re looking at different people in different spots. This week [in practice], we took the opportunity to play some different people on the field, so it may be a very different lineup when we get out there tomorrow,” Kerrigan said. “There’ll be some new faces in new places … We’re still experimenting with different people and different spots on the field for us.”
Kerrigan insisted that although there will be some changes to her roster, sophomore Sydney Little is still her starter at goalkeeper despite being pulled in Sunday’s loss to William & Mary.
Two days before the 3-0 loss against William & Mary, the Pack had won 5-1 against Davidson. During practice this week, the team tried to get back to what worked well against Davidson and trying to stay away from what didn’t against William & Mary.
“Everyone tucked that game away,” Vera said. “We learned from it, but we’re trying to forget about it so we can just play like we did Friday.”
Kerrigan said the team watched a lot of film this week, with hopes that her young team — there are just three juniors and senior combined — can learn quickly from their mistakes.
“We broke everything down on video for the team today,” Kerrigan said. “We went through a lot of what we did wrong on certain plays and how we can fix it for the next time.”
The fourth team in the HPU Invitational, Elon, will not face the Pack. Instead, the team with the most points at the end of the tournament will be crowned champion.
In order for State to be that team, it will need to score early and put away the same type of chances it has previously wasted.
“We learned that when [we] finish well, the game is completely different,” junior Tami Krzeszewski said. “We need to finish our opportunities early … Once we don’t we get down sometimes, and it’s a lot harder to come back.”
